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Saturday, April 28, 2012

The Sonnevelds invited us to go to their place for dinner after our visit to the Botanical Gardens. Of course, we weren't about say no! haha After the Botanical Gardens, we came home to get the washing off the line, feed the animals, and all that. Then we went to the Sonnevelds'... Ruth and Es were cooking, and Monique and I joined them (many hands make light work! Well actually, I think it's more the talking, but anyway...).

So...for dinner we had potato wedges, samosas and spring rolls, peas and corn, carrots, and coleslaw.

Pavlova!!!

Everyone ate well at dinner, so it was a unanimous vote to wait with dessert! That gave us time to do the dishes and finish preparing dessert...

For dessert we made pavlova (or actually, I think Es made it, we just helped put the topping on), and fruit salad (yep we made that too).

After dessert, Mum and Mrs. Sonneveld did the dishes, and we four girls went upstairs with the guitars...actually we'd planned to play Bible Trivia (as we'd had fun playing it the day before!), but we actually didn't get that far!

Friday, April 27, 2012

On Good Friday, while my Dad and Mr. Sonneveld were away on a father/son camp with Jarrod and Samuel, we invited the rest of the Sonnevelds to go for a walk at the Botanical Gardens with us. I'm not sure when I last went, but I know it was a LONG time ago!

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yeah..Ruth and Es pushed the stroller..
thanks btw =)

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It was a beautiful (and fairly warm) day, we had an awesome time hanging out...and taking pics...oh and afternoon tea is always good too...!! lol

Saturday, April 21, 2012

From 2-4pm on March 24th, all of us but Mum, Maria, and Laura, went to the de Boers' place to meet our minister's family, who had arrived from America the day before.
I was kinda sleepy, but it was nice to meet them!

The little ones were very taken with Snowy, Dieuwe's maltese puppy. (Sorry I just realised I don't have any pics of Snowy!)

And...Amelia Smith (5yrs) was very excited to lose her first tooth that afternoon! See if you can spot the gap in the pic:

Ok so I suppose I should introduce them a bit...

Mr. Smith is Texan, the eldest of 7 children, and was homeschooled.
Mrs. Smith is Canadian, one of 4 children (sorry can't remember where she is in the lineup!), and was also homeschooled.
The met through the church (The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland), and now have 4 children: Amelia (or Amy) 5yrs, Aaron (4rs), Owen (2yrs), and Keith (4 months).
You can read their blog here.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

My mum’s eighth pregnancy appeared to fly by; the birth to creep upon us. One minute there were three months to go, the next, this new addition could make an appearance any day!

We washed, dried, and folded seemingly mounds of baby clothing – could anyone possibly be small enough to fit it? A car seat was organised, meals arrived for the freezer, and midwife visits became more frequent. People began asking whether we had news yet. My parents leafed through baby names books. Finally, we were ready, and were left to wait.

Thursday night/Friday morning of the following week, Mum thought things may have begun. Everything stopped, however, and our day continued as normal.

Mid-morning on Saturday of the following week, things started again. Despite a promising start, they slowed down, but did not stop entirely. Danielle and Diana attended a birthday party from mid-afternoon ‘til early evening, hopeful that they would have a new sibling when they arrived home. Chores were done, and our day continued.

My uncle took my siblings and me to church on Sunday morning, and the midwife (Mrs. Vivian) arrived at our place soon after our departure.

After lunch, my siblings went to my cousins’ place, and Uncle Pete and I did the dishes and made a roast dinner.

At one point, my dad thought the baby might not be far away. After assuring my uncle that there wouldn’t be anything to hear during the birth, he refrained from using his earphones, but was still adamant that he would put them to use if even the slightest hint of noise reached us.

Then, at 4:22pm, Sunday March 18th, Laura Yvonne made an appearance. She measured 54cm long and weighed 8lb 12oz - the heaviest of us all. Almost unbelievably, her arrival occurred on big sister Maria’s second birthday! Laura’s middle name, Yvonne, is after our aunty- Yvonne de Bruin.

Laura had many brothers and sisters eager to hold her, or simply be with her, when they arrived home about an hour later.

Uncle Pete took most of us to the evening church service, leaving mother and baby to sleep, and Dad to have a somewhat needed rest.

On Monday, March 6th, I had an awesome opportunity to witness Dr. Ben Carson interviewed by Ian Grant and Petra Bagust. Dr. Carson is a neurosurgeon (brain surgeon), who has performed the only successful separation of Siamese twins joined at the brain, among other things. Ian Grant is the founder of Parents Incorporated, and Petra Bagust is co-host on the Breakfast show. The event was sponsored by Sanitarium and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

It was a pleasant surprise to more than one of us that, despite seat numbers having been allocated, you could sit anywhere, enabling us to sit with more of our friends than had been expected. The evening opened (I mean the official part, of course we’d been talking first! lol) with a couple of songs sung by men’s group Day 7 and a prayer.

Finally, the interviewers and interviewee were introduced, accompanied by loud applause. Following the introductions, we were shown a few clips from Gifted Hands, a movie about Dr. Carson. Then the interviewing began. His opinion was asked on matters of family, parenting, creation, and a few other topics. The interview itself was divided into three sections. During the first break everyone was asked to stand and sing the melody (Day 7 would harmonize) for “How Great Thou Art/How Great is Our God.” It was an unusual mix of the two songs I hadn’t heard before; we sang part of “How Great Thou Art,” followed by the chorus for “How Great is Our God,” after which we reverted back to the first song.

Dr. Carson shared from his own life as he challenged and encouraged us to achieve our best. As a young boy, he was failing in school. His mother, an illiterate woman who provided a living by cleaning houses for wealthier people, believed her sons were capable of whatever they put their minds to. She began requiring two book reports every week from each of her sons. This (of course!) greatly increased Ben’s knowledge, which was reflected in his grades.

Throughout the evening, he shared a few study techniques, including the use of flashcards, which he found to be helpful when he was at college. In fact he repeated them so often that his brother (who was studying engineering) learnt all the bacteria without even trying! Another technique for studying for a test was to go to the place where you would take the test, and associate pieces of information with various things in the room, i.e. A list with the door handle.

Many people say ‘don’t set your expectations too high,’ but Dr. Carson says exactly the opposite –set your expectations high, because you most likely won’t rise above your expectations, and people will generally live up or down to the expectations they and others have of them.

Another point made was that your brain remembers EVERYTHING you put in it –through sight, hearing, and so on – so be careful what you put in! Dr. Carson illustrated this by mentioning a trend he noticed in the prisoners he visited every week for a while; they had lived seemingly normal lives, then one day after they’d had too much alcohol or drugs, they would ‘act out’ what they had put in their brains previously –through mediums such as movies.

Something Dr. Carson really stressed throughout the evening was for people to follow their beliefs, regardless of what is politically correct.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Every athletics season our club holds a 'fun run' as a fund raiser. The athletes run as many laps as they can around the track in one hour. And well yeah, I kinda didn't do it this season!! But hey, I got heaps of photos instead :P Enjoy!
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Grouping up around the start line

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Middy, Mrs. Rakete, and Mrs. Bennet marking people.
The athletes get a mark each time the cross the start/finish line;
at the end of the night, the marks are counted to determine the
number of laps the athletes have run.

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Katie (8) and Amy (7)

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Bryce (4)

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Joanna (4)

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oops..she saw me! Danielle (5)

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ok, so maybe instead of asking her to pose,
I should take a photo when she isn't looking?!?hehe
cute tho, right? lol

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Joel and Essie

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Mackenzie (4) and Matti run the sausage sizzle

﻿ After we arrived home for our awesome night at athletics, our neighbour Melissa dropped these in:
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I organised a birthday party for Danielle this year, which we held on February 23rd.

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Food

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Pass the Parcel - I did it a bit different this year; as can be seen,
everyone stood in a line and passed it under and over, under and over, etc.

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ok this is more of a line..
I actually let them start with one parcel, then after a little
while gave them the second one. hehe before I wrapped the
parcels up I was worried I didn't have enough 'fillers'!!!

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Pressent table, er, desk

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Writing a story for the story competiton.
I split everyone into two teams and got them to write
a story about Danielle. They had a 10-minute time limit.
Afterwards they had to read it aloud and Danielle judged them.

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Judging the stories

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Yeah, we played Twister

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In each of these bowls, there is a lolly under the flour.
They each had to get it with only their mouths.
Lol a couple were blowing the flour off before picking the lolly up in their teath!